Evaluation Question Four

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience are young adults, aged around 15-21. Normally, psychological thrillers are aimed at adults from about mid twenties to late forties, which is shown through the use of middle-aged male characters within most story-lines. We chose to go against these conventions and instead chose younger actors and lowered the usual target audience. From our research we knew that as a lot of psychological thrillers are classified either as 12As or 15s, therefore, teenagers are allowed to watch them according to the law. Furthermore, we know that teenagers like to be scared as they are the target audience for most slasher horror films, therefore a psychological thriller aimed at teenagers would appeal to them because they like to be scared and a psychological thriller with a teenager as a main character would scare them more than a middle aged character because it is more reminiscent of their own lives. In recent years, the age group of target audiences for psychological thrillers has started to decline as shown by films like 'The Butterfly Effect' (2004) where the main actor, Ashton Kutcher, as well as the other characters, are younger than the usual characters of psychological thrillers, so it appeals to younger generations. Moreover, films like 'Final Destination' that can been seen as a mix between a horror and a psychological thriller appeal to a young adult audience like our film, as companies have noticed the demand for horror/psychological thrillers amongst this age group.

Unlike with horror/slashers that are aimed mainly at males, rather than females, psychological thrillers are aimed at a much broader audience, which ultimately makes them more marketable. This is reflected in our target audience, which is non-gender specific as there are parts of the story line that will appeal to both males and females. For example, the action that would later unfold between Noah and Horatio would interest males that like action scenes. Whereas, the idea of the age old story of the love triangle would appeal to most females, especially because the Mia defeats Horatio's dominant hold over her in the end. Our media product is mainly aimed at working/middle-class teenagers, that are at college/sixth form studying for their a-levels. They would be quite social people, like Mia is in our film and would be able to understand the different social cliques within schools, such as the unpopular nerds like Horatio and the popular group that Mia is at the centre of. They would also be the sort of people that like feeling:

• suspense
• uncertainty
• anxiety
• excitement
• nerve racking tension

(as these are the feelings that psychological thrillers are known to promote)